Liberty Laurel Dress

I finished this pretty summer dress yesterday after hanging around in an almost finished state for nearly a year. I started in May 2016 and have only just got around to finishing the bias bound neck and fastening at the back in April 2017! If you are not familiar with the silhouette it is the ever-popular beginners shift dress the Colette Laurel.

I remember cutting out and making the majority of this dress last year but luckily I gleaned a bit more information via my 'project' section of the Foldline sewing enthusiast platform. Foldline is a great online community of sewists where you can create a profile and interact with other sewing enthusiasts. You can also write pattern reviews, create an online visual of your stash fabric and contribute to a forum.

Above is an example of my laurel project as seen on my Foldline profile. I added a few notes about the changes I made. Apparently I have added 6cm to the length of the dress (I had forgotten that detail which is bound to happen if you take 11 months to finish a dress!) and the Liberty cotton was purchased in a 30% off online sale. The Liberty print is called Kinetic from the Spring / Summer 2016 collection. You can get it from Sharkut for £14.99 per metre.

Not much else to report other than I used the same closing technique as my Sew Over It Ultimate Shift dress with a hair-band cheat rouleau loop and a lovely button I had in my stash. I used the reverse side of the button as it had pretty flecks of grey, pink and white in it that picked up on the colours of the Liberty print.

I hand stitched the self-made bias binding into position including around the opening at the back.

It fits well on the upper body but is probably a little wider than I'd like at the hip area as I did my usual grading between two sizes from bust to hips. Perhaps I don't need to do this on my next version as it is a fairly loose fitting shift dress. It does however look nice worn with a belt. When I get a chance I will post some photos of me wearing it.

Pattern: Colette Laurel Dress (I made the top here) = £12 (second make from pattern) = £6

Fabric: 1.1 metre of Liberty Kinetic Tana Lawn = £15

Gutterman Thread: Pink from stash = free

Rouleau Loop: Hairband from stash = free

Buttton: From stash = free

Total: £23

Check out lots of other cool crafty blogs at #handmademonday organised by Julia of Sum of their Stories.

By Hand London Victoria Blazer

I have had both the By Hand London Victoria Blazer pattern and this pretty cotton sateen in my stash for quite some time. The colourful print reminds me of one of my favourite artists, Sonia Delauney who uses lots of beautiful washes of colour and circular motifs in her paintings.

Sonia Delauney, 1914, Prismes Electriques. Image Source

Last Wednesday I decided that the Victoria blazer and Delauney-esque fabric would make a great pairing and set about cutting out the pattern.

I opted for variation two; the cropped blazer.

Things were going as planned and I also found enough bright blue fabric for the lining (leftover from SOI Tulip skirt) and cut the whole lot out.

The construction was great as I used the beautifully illustrated instruction booklet as well as the online sew-along on the BHL blog.

After tackling the very cool collar construction and had assembled the front and back of the blazer things went a little off-piste. It seems I had not cut the appropriate length for the cropped blazer on the front bodice pieces, leaving quite a chunk missing. Luckily, rather than sulking and throwing this in the UFO (unfinished-object) pile, inspiration struck in the form of a pocket.

After looking at Grainline's Driftless cardigan I decided to create a pocket by adding an extra layer of outer-fabric across the full width of the front of each bodice piece. I lined them with blue fabric and sewed the whole lot to the front of each bodice.

I'm really happy with this new 'design-feature' alteration. Additionally I also had to add extra sections on the lining too as I had cut all pieces out at the same time.

As for the remaining construction I did far more hand-sewing than instructed in the booklet but I really love the mindful practice of carefully finishing garments by hand. In part this hand-work is also because my 25 year old Bernina is still playing up and either needs a massive overhaul or (whispered tones) I need to buy a new machine.....

I used the same construction for the lining that I learnt on the Sew Over It Coco Jacket which is to sew the jacket lining to the seam allowance of the arm scythe then to hand-stitch the sleeve into position. It takes A LOT longer to do this than other methods but I love the final finish. I would like to make another Victoria Blazer so I will keep my eye out for a new fabric with the right weight.

Pattern: By Hand London Victoria Blazer paper pattern = £13

Fabric: 1.5 metres cotton sateen from Samuel Taylors (Leeds 2013) = £10

Lining: 1 metre of lining from stash = free

Gutterman Thread: Black and blue from stash = free

Total: £23

Check out lots of other cool crafty blogs at #handmademonday organised by Julia of Sum of their Stories.

#2017SVE Secret Valentine Exchange 2017

For those of you who haven't heard about the marvellous Secret Valentine Exchange (SVE) it was set up a number of years ago by the lovely Ute and Sanae.
I took part last year and thoroughly enjoyed the experience (you can read about the 2016SVE here) and thought I would definitely take part in the 2017 exchange.

I almost missed out this year as I didn't hear about it until a day AFTER the deadline for signing up (because I am not on Instagram anymore it is easy to miss these things). I commented on Sanae's blog post saying I was upset to have missed the deadline...

I got a lovely reply from Sanae which confirmed I had missed the SVE boat.
BUT, the following day I received an e-mail from the lovely pair asking if I was still interested in participating as quite a number of people had difficulties signing up using their mobile devices etc.... Of course I said yes!

So my SVE buddy was Kate from Cornwall. She loves the colours of the sea; blues, greens and purples. She has an Instagram account @k8c1962 which is lovely stream of hand craft, crochet, luscious hand-drawn patterns and beautiful scenery. I admit to a bit of research (friendly-cyber-stalking) before embarking on my hand-made gift to Kate.

I used only stash fabrics to produce a good sized tote bag to showcase my English Paper Piecing Patchwork I made at the London Craft Club at the National Gallery. I used a few fabrics provided at the workshop but also included some scraps of my own including Liberty Tana Lawn prints (the aqua Vanessa and Betsy prints).

Here are some photos of the finished bag. The patchwork was hand-appliquéd onto the blue fabric before the construction of the bag.

I used a bright blue medium weight cotton (remnant fabric from my SOI Tulip skirt from 2014) for the bag outer along with a baby blue polka dot cotton lining that I bought in a Cath Kidston sale quite a while ago.

I also wrapped up an A5 Liberty print sketchbook (Kate is always doodling and sketching) and some pretty MUJI origami papers. Here is the final Secret Valentine Exchange parcel.

My SVE didn't end there, although this was not an 'official' Secret Valentine Exchange.....

After attending the Janet Bolton workshop at Selvedge in January I created a hand-sewn applique and embroidered piece using monochrome colours. I had it in my mind that this would be the piece I would send to my SVE buddy. When I got Kate's details I realised that the colours and personality of that piece might not be quite right. I instead chose to send it to a new friend Kathy who I met on the Janet Bolton workshop. She lives in New Jersey and had travelled to London to enjoy some sight-seeing and the embroidery workshop. I had mentioned to Kathy about the SVE project and she thought it was a wonderful idea.

Here is the final piece. All hand patch-worked, appliqued and embroidered.

After gift wrapping.

Here are the parcels ready to go in the post!

Last week I received my parcel from my SVE buddy. It turns out that Kate (that I had made my SVE gift for) was my partner! She had been busy and made me four beautiful gifts!
I had mentioned that I liked the colours red, bright pink, green and monochrome and the pattern company Marimekko. She was very creative and produced the most lovely things.

Beautifully wrapped in such lovely paper with a hand-made card too!

First a beautiful black linen bag. This fabric has been hand-dyed by Kate made with the remnants of a costume she made. The linen originally came from her grannies haberdashery shop. A very precious piece of stash busting here Kate. Thank you.  

This funky little felt brooch was attached to the ribbon of the parcel. So cute and I love the hand-stitching.

My favourite piece is this striking red leather purse made from a recycled leather jacket! How cool! I especially love the vintage ribbon with the Marimekko-esque flowers. 

The final gift is a hand-made bag in black linen. The appliquéd decoration is actually a woven sample that Kate produced whilst studying Textile Design in the 1980's. The texture and colours are brilliant.

In conclusion to this epic post, I feel very lucky to have participated in this year's Secret Valentine Exchange. I had so much fun making the Janet Bolton inspired embroidery piece for Kathy and learning English Paper Piecing techniques for Kate's SVE gift.

A big thanks goes out to Ute and Sanae for organising such a beautiful project that brings joy and happiness into peoples lives x

I am already looking forward to SVE 2018!

This post is linked to #handmademonday organised by Julia of Sum of their Stories.

Mending; Love it or Loathe it?

I have always mended my own, family and friends clothes over the years. It is one of those jobs that seems to automatically gravitate towards you as a keen sewer. My usual mindset on this is I don't mind doing these little repair and alteration jobs but I would rather be making something shiny and new. I decided this morning that I should be more positive about mending and see it as a mindful and mediative activity.

Enter two jobs that have been hanging around for a while.

First up a work shirt with a missing button repair completed.

The second item was my Merchant and Mills Camber Set top that I made last year which ended up looking like this after the first wash.

As you can see the bias-bound neck frayed as I must have trimmed back the seams inside the neckband too zealously for the viscose to survive the washing machine. I didn't have any of the ikat-style print left so rather than unpick and re-insert another band I decided to trim back the fraying fabric and hand-stitch some black bias-binding around the neckline.

The original neckline bias can still be seen so I made sure the black bias-binding was an even distance all the way around to create a 'feature'! I really like the finished effect and glad I can put this top back into my wardrobe.

What do you think about repair jobs?

Do you love them or loathe them?

Sew Over It Coco Jacket Completed!

Yahoo! After an epic session of hand-stitching last night I finally finished my Sew Over It Coco Jacket that I started at the Clapham branch class in November 2016.

This is the third jacket / coat I have made at Sew Over It classes (1960's coat, Francine Jacket and now the Coco). Due to a little previous experience with coat-making I had a better understanding of why facings and fusible fabrics are used to strengthen the jacket and I was able to adapt the pattern using a hem-band like I used for my Francine jacket rather than the suggested class method.

The class was taught by the lovely Kate Underwood who was extremely helpful with a chilled out and calm vibe throughout the workshop sessions.

I bought the wool-mix fabric from Sew Over It for £14 a metre and as it was VERY wide I only really needed 1.25 metres (although of course I bought two metres just in case so I now have enough left to make a winter pencil skirt). I only needed one metre of black lining.

Just to let you know the colour of this jacket is a beautiful Yves Klein cobalt blue which just doesn't come out in the photographs very well. Have that lush blue in your mind whilst perusing these shots...

Don't worry the sleeves are the same length - just not sure my arms are!!

Hand-stitched lining around the sleeve-syche

Hand-stitched lining all along the hem-band

I am happy to have finished this jacket and I have clarified some basic tailoring and dress-making knowledge and learnt a few new processes along the way too.

If I was to make this jacket again I would choose a lighter fabric as the bulk of the wool doesn't allow for a very sharp finish at the edges and corners of the jacket opening. On the plus side it is very warm and cosy!

Overall, I enjoyed learning some new processes and meeting some new sewing buddies (hello Steph!). I will leave you with a random selection of construction shots looking at the internal workings of the jacket.

New to me technique - the Coco instructions require you to the stitch the bodice lining to the arm-syche

Pretty happy with the shoulder and sleeve seam lined up perfectly!

Before inserting the sleeve lining I very carefully and slowly trimmed away excess seam allowances

Sleeve lining pinned in position ready for hand-stitching

What are you working on at the moment?
Is there anything in your work-in-progress pile that you really want to finish?